I’m loathe to make the main talking point about the referee but what else are you supposed to do?
After being subjected to such woefully biased and unfit officiating I don’t blame those banding about the accusations of corruption.
How can Kevin Friend seriously think Raul’s challenge on Meslier was a bookable offence? It was a 50/50 challenge that both players had every right to go for, which resulted in an inevitable collision.
It seemed to me that Friend was desperate for Leeds to go unpunished with numerous first-half fouls, he then wanted to create a major talking point with Raul’s sending off, and the cherry on the cake was giving as much as possible to Leeds for the rest of the game.
And to see all their subs run across the pitch as the winner went in was frankly despicable. A night of chaos was always on the cards when you have a referee that is unable or unwilling to control a game of football. No wonder none of our refs are no longer fancied much by UEFA or FIFA.
I’m not excusing the woeful defending for all three goals – we rather lost our heads. And I’m normally the first one to call out the lads, but I actually don’t blame them for having their minds scrambled by a ref who was hell-bent on manipulating the outcome.
It was a mad-cap 106 minutes and I’m struggling to make sense of the actual intricacies of the match.
All I can say is that I thought Wolves followed the blueprint of the Watford performance in the first-half by starting off with plenty of intensity and that meant the chances and goals followed. To do so when proceedings were so stop-start and we lost Neves to injury made it even more impressive.
I’m just gutted, truly gutted. The three points were wrapped up until the sending off. 4 or 5-0 was on the cards.
Seventh and a Europa Conference League spot isn’t out of reach but tonight will take some getting over for all of us.
The wound that was last night’s defeat is still fresh. Lots of emotion around the officiating and the actions and performances of some Wolves players, particularly in the second half, made all the more potent as a win would have put us 6th, at least temporarily.
However, that is no excuse for some of the disgraceful comments that are on different social media platforms about Raul Jimenez. As Paddy points out, it was a 50/50 ball. Raul had every right to go for it, and was very brave in doing so. Some individuals have very short memories and even shorter measures of self control and class. They should be ashamed.
Jimenez is one of our players. He’s done so much for our club, and it’s less than 18 months since that awful night at the Emirates that could have been so much worse. Worse for him, his young family and all Wolves supporters.
He has quite literally put his life on the line for Wolves. There are bigger things going on in the world at the moment so for those special few, please show some perspective, respect and patience.
UTW
Can’t take anything the Twitter morons say seriously mate. There’s always going to be these people, just the way it is. He knows he’s loved at this club.
Agreed Rich.
I’ll bet my house that they are youngsters with no history of having followed the club through thick and thin.
Mainly thin..
This blog is extremely level headed and most posts are balanced.
I don’t even look anywhere else to read comments tbh
Totally agree, I gave up reading some of the dross on the We Are Wolves group. I did agree with your post on there & gave it a like – well guessing it was you as pic is the same!
Lol yep rumbled.
Haven’t read the comments yet but will do so.
A phenomenal game for the neutral but eventual agony for Wolves’ fans imv. Totally agree with Paddy’s summary.
The greatest error we made, to my mind, was to continue to play out from the back whilst being outnumbered by a Leeds’ side whose press is such an integral part of their play. Completely stupid to my mind to invite pressure onto ourselves in our defensive third. Friend should not be allowed to get away with such a partisan performance. However, with the lack of media and punditry interest referees will continue in their inept and, maybe, corrupt performances. Maybe Leeds are considered to be a must for the Premier League by the powers that be in charge?
It was great to see Trincao performing as he should but I hope Neves is not too badly injured. As he performs reflects how Wolves play. More effective backup is necessary for our central midfield, I believe.
‘His performance’
So Moutiniho shouldn’t of had a straight red for that knee high lunge on a Leeds player, lol take your gold & black tinted spectacles off, out fought by a team decimated with illness & injuries, NO FIGHT, NO PASSION
Learn English. Its shouldn’t ‘have’ not ‘of’.
And it’s it’s!
I thought he was late.
Sorry, I thought Raul”s challenge was late.
He got there as soon as he could.
Poor punctuation and grammar. Should be a full stop after ‘player’. A comma after ‘lol’. A full stop after ‘off’. Also, a full stop after ‘injuries’. Oh and a full stop at the end. ‘of’ needs to be changed to ‘have’. You also need to check your spelling..it’s Moutinho. Better luck next time.
Were you watching the same game? You are suggesting that if Jiminez had got to the ball first and been clattered by Meslier, you WOULDN’T have been screaming for a last defense? You can’t have it both ways! Even Carragher said that the keeper would have been booked if it had been the other way round. Grow up and admit that Wolves had a bad day, and accept that this is Jiminez’s second red this season which says a lot about him
Thank you for your considered comment. Please don’t put words in my mouth and then say I can’t have it both ways. Please don’t get personal and suggest I should grow up. You don’t know me just as I don’t know you.
You say 2 reds this season says a lot about Jimenez ? I’d prefer to think his incredible recovery and the fact he’s still playing says a lot more.
UTW
All the neutral comments I’ve heard for example Carragher, Steve Crossman on five live have said it was a ridiculous booking.
A BBC on line report did say, again ridiculously, that Jiminez need not have made the challenge! Well neither should the keeper have made it. The challenge was on my side of the pitch, the only outcome I could see was the keeper might be sent off. That Jiminez was booked and sent off was an affront to football. Both players went for a 50:50 ball. End of, there was no intent or malice, Leeds got the free kick, because the keeper got there first. But a booking? Never! Maybe the referee, if you can call him that , was trying to spice the game up for the Sky Cameras. Giving Leeds a chance! We defended badly and Leeds took advantage, but the decision leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
Carragher did say that but you’ve taken it comepletely out of context:
Fellow pundit Jamie Carragher said: “If he gets there before the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper’s getting booked for that. No-one does anything different, it’s just who gets there, your timing, reading the situation. When that ball got played through, everyone thought Jimenez is in and I winced when I saw the collision.
“Jimenez doesn’t doing anything dangerous, like put his foot up or his knee up, it’s just a coming together at such speed and they’re saying it’s endangering the opponent because of the intensity of the challenge. But the goalkeeper had the same intensity, it’s just that he got to the ball first, that’s why I was uneasy about him getting the yellow card.”
Me thinks that the Wolves blog has been taken over by Leeds supporters who clearly wanted to get the first dig on our site.
However the Raul second yellow was not a yellow card and it did look like a referee trying to increase his fame. Silly comment about the Moutinho foul. There were several Leeds fouls equally worthy of a similar punishment.
A second however, Wolves defending after the 53rd minute was extraordinary, extraordinarily bad. Thank gawd Wolves are not as rattled every game. Good luck Leeds but you will not be in the premier league next season if you continue to play like that.
So there’s two ways to analyse this game. On one hand the referee has cost us, which is undoubtedly true. We were comfortable at 2-0 at looked to be heading towards seeing out the game. Hard to say what would have happened in the last half hour but Leeds barely posed a threat up to then.
The other way to look at it is it was the most pathetic collapse I can remember from a Premier League team. I don’t understand what happened. Panic set in throughout the team and we just let them come onto us, without any plan of our own. The defending was laughable, Sunday league stuff and once the first goal went in the outcome looked inevitable.
Yes we went down to 10 men but that doesn’t have to result in the embarrassing outcome we witnessed last night. We invited them onto us and forgot how to play. It was like we had eight men. We had a striker sent off yet all of a sudden we forgot how to defend, something we’re generally pretty good at. We lost the game in our heads.
It really was ridiculous considering how well we played and how in control we were in the first half.
Agree on all points- bar the comment about the ‘most pathetic collapse of of a PL team’- you clearly did not go to the Villa match! Now that was an even more dramatic collapse. But that’s football- as the Leeds interloper posted ‘ we must suck it up and move on’. Leeds have had their big day, will it be the catalyst for them to stay up? I couldn’t care less. UTW
I’m a Leeds fan. Look at the game objectively. Leeds could have been in front before Wolves scored – Rodrigo. Wolves dominated the second part of the first half but in that time Leeds suffered THREE injuries. When the second goal went in I thought ‘that’s that then’ . In the second half the red card changed the game and I thought Jiminez was a bit unlucky to be sent off. Leeds suffered a FOURTH injury in that incident and, because of other injuries we had a 19 year old at centre half, a 21 year old making his debut in goal and Same Greenwood, 20, playing in his second PL game. Leeds won because of the character and fight in the team and the leadership of players like Ayling and Rodrigo as well as the fact that Wolves self-combusted. At the end 6 of our first choice 11 were stood on the side lines watching and Raphina was at home because of Covid.
Brian
We threw away the advantage we’d gained and before long given the points to Leeds.
I think Leeds will stay up if they can dig deep every game but we really should have put the game to bed .
Disgusting display by a totally useless ref. Forshaw should have gone in the 1st half for his forearm smash which left Saiss down on the deck. At times it was like watching the old Leeds team of cloggers from the days Bremner and Co.
Neither of the incidents for which Raul got yellow cards were bad enough to warrant them, doubt if the first was even a free kick. Even my wife was cursing the ref for being so biased.
There is a sense of corruption about and with good reason. The southern mafia seems to get very twitchy when there is even an outside chance of a team, Wolves or any other, breaking into their cosy “top six”. Well bollocks to the bastards we will get there if not this season then next.
Despite all the rant above I am, though, very disappointed with our defensive display after Raul got sent off. Seemed to go into complete headless chicken mode, god knows why we should have been capable of winning that with 10 men, no problem.
Rant over I will now go and get the piss taken out of me by my Leeds supporting newsagent.
Onwards and Upwards,
These Premier League referees are shocking. The Spurs ‘penalty’ , the non sending off of Pogba, the non penalty when Trincoa was wiped out by Manure defender, the ridiculous ‘penalty’ given against Moutinho at Citeh (which VAR couldn’t see apparently) and now this last night. When we were in the Europa league a couple of seasons ago the Euro refs were so much better than ours. No bias. No ‘big six’ friendliness. The solution is to have neutral referees. Not the clowns we have now.
First of all, welcome to all you new Yorkshire based Wolves fans, appearing on our blog for the first time.
Perhaps you will be converted, and start supporting a good club, with sensible and respectable fans, instead of a bunch of dirty, cheating, diving, whining, bribing babies.
As far as I am aware, there are two types of bung.
One is to seal off a hole or an orifice, the other is a slang term for a bribe.
I can only imagine the size of Kevin Friend’s orifice, to make it big enough for the bung he surely took before the game.
Even Mike Dean’s wildest wet dreams could not come up with the blatent corruption witnessed last night.
Here was a classic case of who polices the police?
Who has oversight across the whole referee spectrum?
Why is there no accountability?
How much financial damage has potentially been caused to our club, and by extension, it’s non playing employees?
And these are questions not just for Wolves, but every club facing constant bad decisions and bias.
If there was 100% consistency, thats one thing, but for all refs to be favouring the so called big six so obviously, then there has to be a reason, which to us poor sods, looks very much like bribery and corruption.
It stinks.
And var has only compounded the problem.
Having said all that, we bottled it last night.
A clear and present danger sign to Jeff that without our talismanic Ruben and Raul, we are a very limited side, desperately in need of reinforcements.
But, shame on us.
At half time, Leeds were dead and buried.
Raul gets sent off, Leeds rolled up their sleeves and off they went, albeit knowing that they were going to get every decision in their favour.
What did we do?
Reverted to the Wolves of old, instead of rallying and fighting against the injustice of it all, we folded and collapsed.
One of our best first half performances of the season followed by our worst second half.
The only saving grace from that debacle is that we wont qualify for a European place, except maybe a cup trip to Swansea, and will avoid having too busy a schedule for our current squad.
But, if we don’t qualify for Europe, are we gonna keep the likes of Neves, Sa etc.?
Anyway, spilt milk over the damn, and all that, bring on the Villa.
Listen..lots of emotion on here. It was 50/50 but you forget we lost 4 players and Raph with Covid on the day…the first 15 mins we had numerous chances to go ahead, then fell asleep.
And ‘cloggers’ like Bremners team. That 10 year period you and most other clubs will never match. Whilst Wolves are a good club, a fairly big club, you’re not a Villa, Leeds or Everton, who sit behind Arsenal, Scum and Liverpool in size.
You bottled it and i love karma. Tje shit housing you lot do and did at ER in October came back to bite.
Swallow it and move on.
We know our place in the footballing pyramid. And when a club like Wolves is sniffing around the coat tails of the Big Six it’s amazing how many marginal/contentious decisions go against you. We have been up there 3 of the last 4 seasons and any Wolves fan on here can give you a long long list of them. They say these things even themselves out over a season. When you are a club like us they don’t.
That’s all we need.
The plucky Leeds fan creaming itself because it narrowly dodged a relegation bullet. Shame you havn’t got a team left for the rest of the season and relegation looks a formality. As Burnley edge you down on goal difference last game of the season. We’ll be there, gloating in yer face. Howzat for a result.
We’ll have K Friend on here next waxing on his card waving prowess. Tosser.
1 lv & COYW.
Rasta. Keep off the glue. See you next season for more timewasting and shithousing.
Prick.
Yeh but losing that FA Cup final to Sunderland in 1973. In my youth I had a Leeds thing going on, but that game made me hate them . Forever. Good times at The West Indian Centre, Chapeltown. 1 lv.
Leeds, big club? Brief flirtation in the 1970’s and that’s it. And what does, ‘Tje shit housing’ mean?
Do your homework you clown and then come back.
Until the mid 60’s never higher than 5th in the top division. Answer my question you clown.
Mmm
1965 to 1975…never finished outside the top3, 4 FA Cup finals, 1 League Cup, 2 div 1 titles, 6 div 1 runners up, 5 european finals…zzzz
Yeah just an average few years. Taxi.
They were the Liverpool of the 80s but in the 70s and called Leeds lol
Soz..The result of an art o level ?
Love these sorts of comments. Leeds are rightly considered a big club but what makes them bigger than Wolves? Both have large, passionate fanbases. Leeds have the same number of league titles and fewer FA Cups and both sides have spent a large part of the recent past in the wilderness. Leeds are like Newcastle, and ourselves to some degree in recent times. Spoken of as a big club but have basically won fuck all of note in the last half a century.
Mmm see above. Wolves never really had a ‘period’ where they were top dogs for so long…passionate fan base yes…but not seen as one of the bigger clubs….that 10 years they were the best side. End of.
Not even the 1950s when we were beating all before us and laying the foundations for the European Cup? That’s a very selective history of yours, I must say.
I’m not surprised our poor old defence was twitching in that second half… what really got to me was the way the linesman kept his flag down on the most obvious offside situations until the very last second.
What’s that all about?? That’s enough to unsettle and wind anybody up.
It was a bloody awful night… best quickly forgotten.
That was awful! I’d add a couple of points aside from the main reasons we lost.
We looked directionless down to 10 men. Lage should have been encouraging us to shore up, change the formation to compensate and hold our well deserved lead. Silva should have come on to stop Leeds’s forward runs from defence to attack.
We seem to have been allowed 4 subs! Don’t know why? But nothing can excuse that defending.
One that is tough to take, can’t really think of any team who’d have been satisfied with that Leeds friendly decision.
But hopefully learn from it. Good to see Trincao playing very well, and I think we should keep him.
But time to move on.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the case may be, I wasn’t able to watch the match on Sky, due to an important family dinner last night. Sadly I lost 3 bets on the match. Wolves 1-0. Wolves 2-0 and a win with BTTS. When I saw the HT score on my phone I smugly ticked off another big win. But I’m still comfortably ahead on my Wolves P&L with BetVictor this season.
This result reminds me of the semi-final loss against Watford where we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I’ve seen clips from last night and to me the horrendously wrong decision to send off Jimenez resulted in us losing our composure and collapsing, when it shouldn’t have. Surely we should have enough in the locker to shut up shop at 2-0 with ten men? Playing against 12 doesn’t help. Away at Man City earlier in the season, Jimenez was sent off in the bloody first half, but we still performed magnificently! OK, we lost 1-0 to Citeh, but only to a dodgy penalty.
Leeds were in a false position in the table and ultimately you have to credit them for a great comeback. But we had it in our power to see this match out, and panicked. In spite of this, Bruno’s first season is still more successful than many fans predicted. He will learn important lessons about game management from last night. I can’t imagine Pep, Klopp or Tuchel not seeing a game out in the same circumstances.
A crazy, bonkers game. I have never seen a game where a sending off had such an impact.
Crazy
??
It’s the hope that kills you.
I don’t think Kevin Friend’s performance smacks of corruption, just incompetence. An absolutely pathetic display which deserves some sort of punishment.
Maybe cable tie him to a goal post?
Being in the Steve Bull, I wasn’t sure about the sending off at the time, but having seen the replay, a yellow card for a 50-50 challenge is nonsense.
I was chatting to some Leeds supporters in the hotel last night and they said that if Raul had not seen red, they would have got nothing from the game and could well have been on the end of a five’fer.
Having said all that, after going down to ten men, our defence suddenly morphed from ‘They shall not pass’ which has served us so well throughout the season, in to Corporal Jones mode…
“We’re down to ten men, we’re under attack, don’t panic! Don’t panic!”
Plus points were:- Our play before the sending off, which was of the highest order… Perhaps the coming of age of Trincao. A goal, an assist and a post rattler… Willy Boly’s generally assured performance…
Minus points:- Our capitulation to the combined efforts of a re-energised Leeds and a clueless referee… Ruben’s injury…
…And the mindless and vicious social media attacks on Raul.
He’s guilty alright. Guilty of occasionally making some mistakes.
WE’RE all perfect of course.
And guilty of playing his heart out for the club he loves.
Those who attack him on line are cowards and aren’t fit to lace his boots.
And have my complete and utter contempt.
With regard to your 5th paragraph, Doog, I feel we missed Kilman big time and he was back to form at Everton so not really sure why he was omitted again.
It was Saiss who was culpable of 2 of the goals imo, but I need to confirm that after I watch the game again. If that is the case, and because Boly played brilliantly, I don’t understand how we missed Kilman.
Great to see Trincao playing exceptionally well. I said to the guy next to me that I have concerns about Trincaom and he proved me wrong. I will have to remain silent as I also said at half time that I could not see Leeds scoring …
Ouch. Still can’t believe how that happened.
Just watched the highlights. A tad harsh on Saiss as he was culpable for 1 goal not 2.
Not sure that I totally agree about Boly but Kidman’s positioning, tackling and general play has been exemplary and I think we can all undertand why his standards slipped against West Ham and Palace.
Kilman!
I don’t think I’ve seen Wolves play a better half of football than they did last night. Or seen them play a worse half.
Even Trincao turned up to the part so it’s not ALL bad. His best performance in Old Gold? I think so.
All this talk of Leeds players going off injured. No one has mentioned that one of them was down to a Leeds player concussing his own team mate.
They were so brutal, most their injuries were self inflicted. My God, Cresswell, the knuckle-scraping arsehole is going to seriously damage someone soon.
This is going to be one of those weekends of sport where nothing goes in my favour.
The problem with liking lots of sport is every now and again the stars align to kick you in the bollocks.
Bath were trounced last night 61-29 in a local derby. I recorded that so as I could watch Wolves live but I don’t think I’ll bother watching.
I can’t see England beating France tonight and it isn’t looking good for Lewis tomorrow.
Only positive is we might hold out for a draw against the Windies.
So, I’m resigned to a shit weekend.
It wouldn’t surprise me in Tottenham and West Ham both get 3 points tomorrow and if Friend were refereeing, he could probably arrange it.
Still plenty of games to go and if we can play 90 mins the way we played the first 56/57mins I’m still optimistic.
Where are you based mate?
Bath are myself and the PMDG’er’s local RU team and we get to The Rec occasionally.
Seen some great Twickenham games in the Spurrell/Guscott/Chilcott era.
What went wrong?
I have seen some bad refereeing decisions in my time but last night was consistently bad. That ref is certainly no Friend of ours and last night just underlined it.
Leeds seemed to be the beneficiaries of every decision that needed to be made., particularly with some dubious tackles in the first half. The sending off was a game changer: Raul had every right to go for that 50-50 ball against their goalkeeper and a second yellow was not warranted.
All that said, the Wolves defence was culpable for all the Leeds goals. The fact that there was no real outlet for balls from defence did not help.
A strange and distressing turn of events only made palatable by some good company post match and a couple of double brandies.
We may as well give Kevin Friend 3 assists for last night.
Fuckin hell. Watching football focus and Greasy is being interviewed with his ‘super-brummie’ accent. It’s all you need when you’re trying to eat your lunch.
I’m thinking Why Raul Why?
We all know why!
And I guess for this same reason why the players then completely lost control of their minds and thoughts.
This resulted in us losing a football match – so what.
We were never quite as good as Arsenal ! UTD ! West Ham ! Or Spurs !
And it further shows that our manager is no better than 8th in the prem at best!!!
Until we get in at least one new centre forward and several more experienced players and a better manager we will win Nothing !
You get what you pay for and Wolves have invested about enough to be mid table when compared to everybody else.
I’m not happy about it and you can all hate me / dislike me for writing it but the facts are there to see we are not good enough!
“We were never quite as good as Arsenal ! UTD ! West Ham ! Or Spurs !”????
Well, we were better than Tottenham on 13 Feb and we were better than Utd on 3 Jan. We only lost by one goal to Arsenal and West Ham in the last month.
We’re not as good as Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool right now but I think we’re there or thereabouts with the rest.
We’re paying the price of a bad start when luck was most definitely against us. Drawing the first three matches, instead of losing by just one goal, we’d be in at least sixth place.
Of course there’s room for improvement and bringing in some extra talent would be nice but no one can say being 8th, ten points clear of 9th, is a bad season so far.
I’m not sure where you’ve been for the last 30 years but for most of that time we could only dream of being 8th in the English Premier League.
I accept we have played better in games against the teams named but I just don’t think all the ‘talk’ by Lage of scoring more goals and playing more pleasing attacking has happened and I certainly don’t think he will ever win anything or in fact finish better than 7th,7th and 13th!
I disagree that we are there or thereabouts with the top 7.
Look at the grounds, the investment, the star players, the squads….I accept we have come a long way in a short period but we are miles apart
I’m all for more signings, we all are. But you’re wrong about a ‘better’ manager. Compared to the financial investment made by the clubs above us, and the talent and depth of their squads, Bruno is performing as well as any manager. Bear in mind that, like Steven Gerrard, this is his first season managing in the PL as well. How long did it take Klopp to get anywhere? Also, it’s no mean feat to be the number one club in the Midlands either. And Leicester have a manager and a squad, that on paper, are meant to be superior to ours, but clearly aren’t performing like it. Put it down to superior management, eh? And Leicester have won the PL and the FA Cup in recent years.
I will accept that Lage has done reasonable job with what he has and this also in his first season but not only from what I’ve seen of his team / player management I just don’t think he will ever win anything. I like you I guess dismissed what he said at the start – more goals – more attacking football to be ‘interview talk’ (especially after he lost the first 3 and changed his approach)
Will he be a better manager than 7th7th13th we will see
Better than Rodger’s …..very unlikely
Doog
Just imagine, whilst playing Crawley that Wednesday evening. Stands full with probably 3000 fans . If someone had said that in ten years time we’d be regularly finishing 8th or thereabouts and fans would be moaning that we should be better….
Then remember Coventry city always finishing mid table ..
Bet they’d swap places in a heartbeat.
What is success?
Imagine winning the league … staying there is sooo much harder than getting there..ask Leicester
Don’t get me wrong I’ve dreamed of 1960 again, the texaco cup, Sherpa Van, league cup – city, league cup – Forrest, even Cardiff then Super Mick, Nuno the best ever!!!! Never to be the same again. Those were the days my friend actually winning something. Can’t see it happening again with this lot
Spend for success – like Everton have?
Success would be to make Silva a good footballer. How much would that cost?
You know that all of these “the refs suck” chants are just begging for more VAR intervention (one way the “powers that be” may look at these rants.) Don’t know what the answer is but more VAR ain’t it.
VAR would be excellent but for the brain dead monkeys that operate it.
VAR is here to stay but if it’s here then surely sending offs by two yellows should be something it can intervene in, that is a game changing decision that has to be the right call. As we all know though and as Pedant pointed out, it’s only as good as the people operating it and Premier refs are so poor that it smacks of corruption, all the pundits are loathe to say that but the amount of money involved is astronomical and where there’s money there’s dirt.
With football awash with dodgy owners and corruption being a way of life for them, how hard would it be to ‘lean’ on a ref with unlimited resources to dig up dirt to blackmail them.
It may well be true that our squad isn’t as good as the seven clubs above us in the league. This may be because we haven’t spent as much as they.
However, there are 84 clubs below us in the league looking up at us with envy. Some of these have spent a helluva lot more than us.
If you ask if I’m happy…..too bleeding right I am.
And yes, the refereeing in this match was abysmal. Too abysmal for it to be mere incompetence.
I would just like to say that as Wolves fans we shouldn’t get too upset if opposition fans come on and give their opinion. A few Leeds fans have made the effort and given a viewpoint different to ours. It’s football and it’s what makes it great. I wish the Leeds fans well. It’s not often we get away fans on this blog. We should welcome them.
The ramifications of the 2nd Jimi yellow go much deeper than losing 3 points on Friday night.
Jimi now misses the next 2 games – 1 for the red, plus another 1 as it’s his 2nd red of the season.
So that single ref decision will negatively impact us for 3 games.
Wolves should appeal
Raul should be told don’t put yourself in that situation again
What? Be told to not commit to a challenge? You are joking, surely?
Wolves are well capable of winning this one, need a good Ref, if not it’s touch and go.
The above is what I posted the day before the game on the Leeds preview post.
It’s been like this with dodgy refs for a long time. We need to dust ourselves off and score more goals so it’s not easy for dodgy refs to influence the game as Friend did.
I believe our time is near, so close I can smell top six, come on you mighty Wolves. Onwards and upwards.
So im in the sports bar in our quite large hotel in jamaica the footy is about to start and not another football fan in sight…then in walk seven yes seven leeds fans in full regalia.
First goal im up giving it one as you do, wife not happy but you know how it is, second not so loud as it looked liked we would trounce them, then…
Boy did i have to do a massive climb down and it wasnt easy but to their credit they didnt rub it in too much as they knew they had got away with murder .
Lesson will be learnt from that debacle i have no doubt but i really do believe we are no better than the eighth position we are in.
We simply drop too many bollocks whether it be the managers decisions or players cock ups we just make too many mistakes to warrant a better league position
Consistency has always been the key to success for every team and we simply dont have that for whatever reasons and there are hundreds so until we find that through new signing’s or better managerial decisions or whatever then we will always be the bridesmaid and not the bride.
Losing to filthy leeds always hurts and its not the end of our season yet but maybe it is the start of theirs i hope they stay up which i think they will so we can take six of them next time round.
Bruno you need to analyse the shit out of that game and sort it out.
I nearly wet myself when you said how many and wearing club colours..
Total respect to them though as I’d have been dancing on the tables..
It’s absolute sods law that Yorkshire had a county day out in Jamaica
Well. You only have to look at the table as it stands now. They have got exactly what they want. The ‘big six’ in the top six !! Conspiracy ? Makes you wonder.
Suppose it gives us a better chance of finishing 7th. Still think we need to win 5 out of 8 to get there. That includes Citeh Chelsea Liverpool.
Well that’s 9 out of the required 15 points in the bag! I’m pleased we have these games to come, we have the opportunity to affect the title outcome and piss on Klopp’s chips. Great way to end the season, show our resilience and fighting qualities.
Jota goal at Forest tonight. Any thoughts on if that was offside had Raul scored it. Unbelievable. Conspiracy???
And the Alisson trip? They would have given a penalty if it were Jose Sa.
Rather be one of the rest than one of the top six.
Wish that they had p#@£ed off and joined the ‘super elites’
Money talks and we just ain’t a ‘big’ club’ apparently
Whereas New. Castle (never won anything) are?
This league will eventually destroy itself and we’ll have to start again.
And that really wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Abramovich started the big money bollocks 19 years ago, and now look at him.
As ye sow, and all that.
If every footballers contracts were ripped up, and nullified, after all the legal stuff which would surely follow and the dust settled, lots of players would return to their own countries, accept lesser, realistic wages, and might, hopefully, show some club loyalty, instead of hopping from one “big” club to another on a yearly basis.
Then there wouldn’t be a big six to piss us off, and corrupt the officials.
Once again, dreaming is free !
One of those leeds fans is following me i know it.
He was behind me on the beach today watching from his sunbed wife wont let me deck him .
Any ideas?
Drop a tab in his Pina Colada, tell him its 1973 and Billy Bremmner is staying in a downtown Kingston Hotel. Return to beach and continue cultural immersion with a large JA carrot.
Pass JA carrot to local Yardies and mention Leeds fan shot Bob Marley, and is directly responsible for hyper inflation and the price of Cocaine.
Dreadlocks holiday.
1 lv.
I just don’t think it would happen cloive.
Noone is ever going to give up the Dosh.
Just have to work with what we have now.
I’d like it to be more affordable and more like the days gone by with northern and southern leagues.
What do I know…
Apparently the cream will always rise to the top… unlike now where the top six creaming off the top
There’s the sour smell of corruption to the top six these days. The cream has curdled.
Yes, seems that way doesn’t it..
I’d have thought, though more like a smelly cheese…
No offence cheester..not meaning to dis’ ya
A couple of weeks ago Frank Lumpard and Everton FC received a public apology from Mike Riley for an error made in their game against Man City for not awarding them a penalty for handball. I wonder if Riley is sending an apology to Wolves?
If we had an apology from him for every wrong var decision against us since it’s inception, he would have to write a rather large book.
Very true, just making a point that little old Wolves aren’t considered worthy enough
It’s now Monday and I’ve calmed down and watched it again . I hope Bruno and the squad do the same. Also Jeff Shi for reasons to come later.
The first half display was really good because we were at a good intensity from the first whistle and played on the front foot. It helped that Leeds were ragged and didn’t take the chances they created but we were clearly the better team and deservedly two goals clear by half time. Raul missed two chances that he really should have put away.
Losing Neves was as big an issue as losing Raul. We can debate referee decisions until the cows come home but we can’t control them. Without Neves we can’t control midfield and lack the quality on the bench to replace arguably our best two players. My point being that 10 men including Neves would and should manage that situation better than 10 men without either of them.
Ait Nourri and Saiss have made mistakes at crucial times in crucial areas as a result of pressure , this needs to be resolved in private. The lack of an effective
“out” ball is something to be resolved on the training ground, having a man sent off is now commonplace (wrongly, but it is) and a proper plan needs to be in place for eventualities. Ultimately, I’m sure the manager and players are feeling very unhappy and as miserable as we are but as has been spoken here many times before;
Neves must be retained on a nice contract and we need reinforcements to cope with every situation. Come on Jeff, make it happen.
Forgive the Leeds saddos coming on here to gloat, they aint had a lot to shout about all season so they need to take their glory where they can get it cos they’ll prob go back to getting beat 4/5/6 nil next week.
Have thought long and hard about Friday night.
Only seen it once – live on the ground (can’t face it again). So no action replays.
Some random maybe meandering reactions-
Obviously we played very well until “the incident”
Don’t want to criticise Raul overly and the second yellow was gross injustice; and from where I was sitting I fully expected to see not him but the Leeds keeper walk. However, the first yellow card was not necessary and led him into the trap.
Our collapse afterwards was not very professional, but in mitigation the loss of Neves had a huge impact.
But I’m afraid my mind keeps coming back to the dodgy history which haunts this fixture (see particularly Wolves v Leeds 8th May 1972, it’s well documented). Then there was the FA Cup semi final at Maine Road when Billy Bremner might as well have had the whistle himself.
No one can deny that the officials this time made blatantly erroneous decisions.
But just contentious decisions of course. And VAR (Mike Riley I believe) was there to ensure fair play! Like at Anfield when it took over 5 minutes to find Jonny’s toe a few millimetres “offside” when he was miles away from Neto when he “scored”. Or the 8 minutes it took back in Dec. 2019 to find a way to give Man City a penalty at Molineux. Just a couple of subjective examples of how the EPL seems to work week in week out.
So let’s all sleep easy because as a post above politely points out “The Big 6” tonight are also the top 6 so order is restored. Should there be a separate trophy for 7th place?
And lightning never strikes twice in the same place, never mind about 3 or more times does it.
One might almost be glad to see the whole house of cards implode so we could all start with a clean slate. Maybe we could have a top 6 which included some of the founder members such as Everton, Villa, Blackburn, ourselves or even Stoke City or WBA. It might be refreshing to see a level playing field without oligarchs, sheikhs, yank franchise holders or whatever.
But that’s just a dream. Isn’t it?
PJB. A trophy race for 7th place? I’d take 6th place right now, that would be a triumph, but 7th would be still be excellent. 8th place would be disappointing after our good run in February, but even 8th place is not locked in. Leicester are 9 points behind us with 3 games in hand. Do the maths. If we’d beaten Leeds as we should have, we’d be sitting in 7th today, just a point behind Spurs but having played a game more.
Apart from West Ham, all the teams above us have 1/2 games in hand. We have 8 to play and unless we bugger things up we should take 15 points, giving us 61 points at the end of the season, our best ever PL total. In 2019/20 we had 59 points and missed Europe on goal difference. In 2018/19 we had 57 points and Europe! Interestingly in 2017/18 Burnley finished 7th on just 54 points and made it into Europe!
As regards Europe, we still have it all to play for. We just have to keep our nerve.
DWW. 6th place means breaking the “Big 6” conspiracy; hence my tongue in cheek reference to a trophy for 7th, probably it would be misnamed the BOTR (Best of the Rest) award. I certainly think 7th is well on the cards; my worry about Europe is the size of our squad. Is it really big enough to sustain another extended European campaign? I don’t think it is and either by choice or due to political pressure I don’t feel that Fosun have the inclination to invest sufficiently to overcome that, at least for the moment.
Hope they prove me wrong though.
Unfortunately the news that Ruben Neves is out until May is a hammer blow to 6th-7th place aspirations. On the plus side, Semedo and Neto should be fit. The ridiculous red card for Raul can’t be appealed as it was from a second yellow. Who said these harsh decisions even themselves out in the end? This one won’t.
We’ll miss Neves badly of course. But getting him out of the shop window prior to what I suspect may be a busy summer transfer fest may be no bad thing in the long run. It should also open up different options for Bruno to try – Cundle, Semedo in midfield, a decent run for Dendoncker etc. Even Boly and Kilman at CB and Saiss in a dfferent midfield. We desperately need a bigger squad long term, this could help.
“Every cloud” etc
Good news!
Just read that Mike Dean is retiring.
Bad news!
He’s gonna be a permanent fixture at Stockley Park.
Also, Martin Atkinson, Fatty John Moss and our good Friend are all now of retirement age.
Please.
With friends like Friend, who needs enemies?
If we dig deep enough do think sepp blatter may be running VAR
A nice comfortable armchair at Stockley Park in front of the big screens could keep some of these buggers going, well into and beyond Sepp Blatter’s age-range. When they can no longer run around on the pitch making crap decisions they can sit around making crap decisions at Stockley Park till the cows come home. Where once we could have looked forward to never seeing these guys again now we’re stuck with them digitally forever. VAR = Very Ancient Referees. Horrifying.
Having decided to digitise my old 35mm slides, I came across this from April 1975 – a presentation to the Doog after his final game – which happened to be against Leeds. Looking it up I see thwe game ended 1-1.
The Damned United.
Good film by the way.
Some four days later I’ve finally just about calmed down sufficiently to take an objective look at THAT second yellow/ sending off and having watched the “highlights” no, no, no way was it either. Jiminez had his eyes on the ball all the way and could only have seen the Leeds keeper, coming from a totally different angle, at the last moment. The keeper just about won the race to the ball and Raul caught him a split second later with his shin, not his boot. It was an honest challenge for the ball and if you can’t make those then we may as well all give up.
One ridiculous, incompetent decision that is likely to have major ramifications on our entire season. Thanks very much Kevin Friend.
On the plus side. We are currently 2nd in the “NO BIG SIX” table. Which is jolly good.
Just been thinking that a super league would probably implode after a few seasons.
Imagine the current “big” teams of Europe actually facing a weekly prospect of losing.
Their so called fans would not like nail biting games, and not being able to steam roller most opponents.
Plus, wouldn’t they get fed up of playing the same relatively few teams all the time?
What about the extra costs of going all over Europe to away games?
And, a lot of the current games towards season’s end are cut throat, do or die relegation dog fights, or fights for European places, resulting in full ish houses.
Pretty boring, like American sports setups, to have no relegation/promotion issues.
And when fan interest wanes and attendances go down, revenue streams ( don’t you hate that expression?) dry up, what will owners do then?
Sell?
Rein in new investment?
Who knows?
No, I don’t think it would be as rosy as they think.
When the stupid super league started losing its appeal, the powers-that-be would start tinkering and experimenting. Rebranding. Sin bins. Commercial breaks within playing time. Cheerleaders. Tinkering with rules, for example they already wanted 80 minute matches, not 90 minutes! (Not many people picked up on that). They would basically prostitute the whole thing.
Neves out until at least May with knee ligament damage. We all ******* hate Leeds.
Finally plucked up the courage to watch the highlights and “lowlights” 5 days after being at the match.
Reflections-
After a poor start played really well for about 40 minutes.
Jonny is great at RB specially if Bruno wants to utilise his preferred formation of a back 4 and try Semedo in a midfield 3 or 4 as a different option ready for next season
The match-
We were cruising until “the incident”. BUT Jiminez’s first card was both unnecessary and reckless playing right into the hands of the fussy little fat Friend. Calm down just a little Raul, your name is not David Luiz.
The red was the worst piece of officialdom chicanery I’ve seen since Keith Walker sent The Doog off all those years ago. Is the moral of the tale don’t try to break the “Big 6” stranglehold if you know what’s good for you? I think Leicester City and others including ourselves already know the answer to that question.
And then.
In a manic half hour we lost our collective heads and possibly even more crucially Neves. Ait-Nouri and Saiss were badly culpable for the first 2 and the third then became almost inevitable. Even the normally Mr. Cool Sa looked flustered.
But we shouldn’t let a bad/mad half hour define our season. This (too) small squad has no little skill and plenty of resilience, so let’s try and summon up a little more consistency and try to get another 15 or 16 points – it’s doable, Europe is still on but only just.
Bring on the Villa.
It was a much worse decision as the Doog hurled various expletives at the linesman and that wasn’t allowed in those days (and shouldn’t be now) even if what he called him may have been factually true.
We only had the linesman’s word for it and as I recall Derek actually denied it so it was his word v the linesman. Think there was also some “previous” involved. I’m sure we’ll agree though that even over 50 odd years 2 wrongs don’t make a right.
We do indeed. Oct 1969 and I was there. Walker needed a police escort from the ground, I recall.
So you was an ‘ooligan even back then, eh??!!
Good years then as now though weren’t they. And even back then we were fighting to break the mould. Very much like now just short of getting across the line and being able to make a really serious impact. With a little bit of a push we can still do it and I think we may have the man in Bruno if he gets the right backing. The “Big 6” are in considerable disarray with Chelsea and Man. Utd in crisis, Spurs also in upheaval and as we’ve seen ourselves recently Arsenal are no great shakes.
I won’t say it’s now or never but there will probably never be a better time for us and the “best of the rest” to challenge the status quo.
Sorry for nostalgia overdose.
Hope springs eternal! .
Hard to beat good old-fashioned sledging by the Aussies. One memorable insult delivered during a test match was:
How’s your wife and my kids? Answer: Wife’s fine, kids are retarded.
(I imagine that Doog’s version was X-rated)
Not able to apply for a ticket against Newcastle until 31st. Bet all tickets will be gone by then. Crossing fingers.
Reports saying Neves could be out for the season either way there is no one to step in.
Gibbs White would have been ideal may be Cundle but I not sure if Bruno trusts him yet.
Just goes to show again as if we didn’t know already the lack of foresight by Jeff and Fosun his injury is on a par with Raul’s at least when Raul got injured we were no where near the top six.
This again shows the high risk the strategy Jeff and Co: are willing to follow that’s 2 crucial players we have lost in the last two seasons without having made sure we had decent back up……when will Jeff learn.
Thanks for the optimism, Paul
Neves out…..Europe gone….well done Jeff..!
This ‘high risk’ strategy you mention is on course to deliver us our historical best fifth successive season in the PL in August, with a possible chance of Europe. Not bad for ‘no-foresight Jeff’.
Have you thought about applying for a position at Wolves? CEO maybe? Jeff evidently needs you.
Yep, Jeff needs him like a penis sized wart hanging from his eyelid.
The last five years have been the best any of us have seen for 40 odd years but let’s not mention that!
Come on you wolves
The points I’ve made are valid, how do I know that because of your lack of a reply.
As usual let’s bow down and be grateful….. That s the best you can do.
Carry on kissing Jeff’s arse…I’ll stick to pointing out his obvious floors.
After six years in charge he still hasn’t a clue about running a football club.
Jeff recently done a interview with saying Wolves will be one of the biggest brand in the world in five years……..what about the team.
The team is something we could only have dreamed of. I stood in the away end at Forest away in 2017/2018. We were bottom 8 in the championship. 1000 unsold tickets by the way before the glory hunters jumped abroad under Nuno. Fosun have been a revelation. I am no fan of Jack Hayward for all he was supposed to have achieved. No Portuguese revolution under him. He didn’t like foreigners. People should put their trust in Jeff and Fosun. They gave us the best times we have had since 1980. I think there are better times to come.
I agree with you Cheese about Sir Jack….. pulled the rug away from Dave Jones when he got us promoted and yes he views towards foreigners were out dated and misguided.
We finally got to the Premier League and he only gave Dave Jones £5 million.
The true saviour of Wolves was Jack Harris he kept us going until Hayward showed up.
Don’t forget Jack Gallagher either.
When healthy, Bruno has the squad size he wants and will have to deal with injuries, just like other coaches.
Although I could never be arsed to go on another teams blog myself, it is quite nice to hear from a few excited Leeds fans after our game on Friday.
Don’t be strangers guys, you know, like the Everton fans who enjoyed coming on last year after they beat us, yet we’re strangely anonymous this year after we beat them home and away.
I don’t mind Leeds staying up tbh , the league is better with them in it.
Just one thing though, maybe tone it down a tad when your in the family enclosure lads.
What a shame, Italy just failed to qualify for the World Cup ( again)
Obviously then, it’s coming home ?
Just wanted to be first
Utw
Interesting snippet about Traore from barcauniversal.com:
“Traore is someone who Barcelona likes, but as quoted by SPORT, the team is certainly not willing to pay the initially agreed €30 million fee under any circumstances. His agent Jorge Mendes has known this since January and is currently working on striking a deal that could potentially involve Francisco Trincao or Riqui Puig. The primary option could directly see an exchange between Traore and Trincao, but this requires a lot of effort since the latter really hasn’t adjusted to life in England.
Then comes Puig in the picture. There are sources that claim the young midfielder is wanted by Wolves but nothing is advanced at the moment. And finally, there are minute chances that Traore could, in fact, pen a new deal with Wolves altogether and could move to Barcelona again on a year-long loan. It is rightly believed that Barcelona will not make the first move in Traore’s situation as there are still chances that Dembele could be retained. If that’s the case, Traore will certainly not continue at Camp Nou”
Adama can be likened to a highly expensive, exclusive call girl.
Everybody knows what he has to offer, but no one is willing to pay the asking price.
Personally, for me, speaking individually like, myself, I think his ship has sailed away from the port of Wolverhampton ( good with stilton ) and he is in danger of becoming a modern day Mary Celeste, doomed to wander over the seven seas of football, with no permanent stopping place, eventually ending up at some Bilston Sunday morning league team!
Don’t y’all hate these international breaks, with nothing interesting to blog about, much like the cricket season.
Now that must have upset Cheesy and Ben!
85 degrees in Houston today, lovely jubbley!
I’ll see your 85 mr Houston and raise you 10 .
Actually having a little rain tonight for the first time in what seems like forever- luvlly jubbly
Yep , international breaks now got me talking about the weather!
Just to get back on track, we’ll done Morgan
Utw
Much better and nicer weather over here, folks. You know where you can stick your 85 and 95.
The shower that is the cricket team getting turned over in the Caribbean. Well it could be worse. Could live in West Bromwich.!
Nice to see Christian Erickson back and scoring for Denmark.
So Scott Sellars is in charge of who we sign…quote from him in an interview with express & star, Scott Sellars said ” he won’t sign players Bruno wants if he himself doesn’t want them”
So our mangers judgment is not trusted. What give Sellars the qualifications to have the final say on players yes he played in the Premier League so did Gazza and he was a better player but I wouldn’t let Gazza sign players.
There are not many manager who would work under this sort of restrictions.
Does sound strange, that G.S.
I can’t imagine that the owners would be overly happy that Scott had broadcast that .
Would really surprise me to find out it was true.
Who knows tbh
I would say that it needs to be a fusion between Scott Sellars. Jeff Shi and most of all Bruno. I can’t see any manager worth their salt agreeing to anyone signing players they dont want. If they do it is not all that good. If i was the manager i wouldn’t work under such a regime . Cc
I wonder if Nuno was in favour of signing Fabio Silva? Surely a manager going after a job at a football club will find out how much signing authority he will have? But, at the end of the day, the manager is only an employee. I wonder if any manager in top flight football has the final or only say in these decisions, Probably not.
Klop , Man City coach Conti , Moyes I think you will find most of the Premier League managers have the final say after all they are the ones who have to stand or fall depending on results.
It explains a lot regarding Nuno last year. If he was asking for players that Sellers didn’t agree with there is bound to be frustration and friction bey said parties.
Also results and performance are down to the manager but how can the manager be held responsible when he hasn’t a say on who comes in, he would be well within his rights to say well I didn’t want the players you have given men.
Sounds like the tail wagging the dog.
Ben Ramsdale of Birmingham World has just published this rumour. Part shown below. Hopefully nothing in it, and I would imagine that any real interest would be from Everton.
“Wolverhampton Wanderers have ‘shown interest’ in Stade Rennais boss Bruno Genesio despite sitting within touching distance of the European places in the Premier League.
That’s according to French outlet RMC Sport who add that a number of top teams are keeping tabs on the former midfielder including Wanderers’ fellow Premier League sides Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.”
From the Guardian today:
“Plans to allow teams to qualify for the Champions League based on historical performance have received the backing of Europe’s top clubs as the best way to ensure the competition remains “premium” and “inclusive”.
I hope Jeff is on the phone to Aleksander Ceferin because we should have our place guaranteed now.
European club football began with Wolves and you don’t get any more historical than that!
For historical read ” richest “
We pioneered European floodlit football back in the 1950s. It was all our idea. Yup, Jeff, get on the blower right now. Historically, Wolves were at the forefront of early pan-European competitions. Founding members, if you like, of European football as we know it today.
Lesser known today is our early role in the development of modern soccer the USA: Here is an interesting link with the wonderful title: ‘How Wolverhampton Wanderers were America’s first football conquerors’
https://footballpink.net/the-los-angeles-wolves-wolverhampton-wanderers-america-nasl/
That was a great game for another, far reaching reason.
Wolves signed Frank Munro, who went on to become probably our classiest central defender ever.
Loved that bloke.
Don’t forget Derek Jefferson and John Holsgrove! Also, if the paying fans at Wembley decide to boo McGuire with our Conor on the bench, they probably believe a player should be picked on form not past reputation? Otherwise it’s caps for the boys.
Expect 5 subs to be pushed through soon too .
Players health and well-being will be the punchline but the biggest benefit will be to those with the biggest and strongest squads making it that little bit harder for smaller clubs to cause an upset.
So that’s Preston North End in the Champions League, then.
Raul’s going to the World Cup!!!!
Reply to self, dumb shit that I am.
That gives me four countries to cheer on.
England
USA
Portugal
Mexico.
Life be good!